A Pitchers’ Duel
The Arkansas Razorbacks handed the Ole Miss Rebels their first loss of the SEC tournament as they defeated them 2-1 on Wednesday morning. The game was a pitchers’ duel with a run scored by each team in the first inning and none following until Brian Anderson scored the final run in extra innings on a wild pitch.
“It was a very well played game. Both pitchers and bullpens did a tremendous job. We got out of some jams. We both hit some line drives. We had the unfortunate play that would have been a two-run single and given us a two-run lead going into the ninth and it hits a runner in the foot. It just figures that the game would end on a wild pitch, the most exciting play in baseball next to the sacrifice fly. From our standpoint, we were glad to see it,” said Razorback head coach Dave Van Horn.
Performance of the Game
Barrett Astin was fantastic on the mound for the Razorbacks in their SEC Tournament opener. The right-handed pitcher threw 8.0 innings for Arkansas allowing just one run off of five hits with one walk and four strikeouts. So what was working for Astin?
“Pretty much everything” he said. “I was going up in the zone and today the ball was moving a lot and I had success.”
Astin threw just 90 pitches in his highly efficient outing allowing the Arkansas bullpen to rest as they used just one other pitcher in the victory.
Moving Forward
Arkansas will face LSU on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Arkansas lost two out of three to LSU in conference play. Ole Miss will play Alabama on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. with the loser facing elimination. Ole Miss swept Alabama at home during conference play earlier this season.
